Pages

Monday, March 3, 2014

Young India could swing Elections 2014

If one includes those till the age of 22 who wouldn’t
have been eligible to vote in 2009, this number comes to 90,000 people per
constituency who will be voting for the first time. Additionally, there will be
voters between 22 and 23 who can vote this time, too.

According to the revised electoral roll statistics with
the Election Commission, as of January 1 this year, over 42,000 voters between
the ages of 18 and 19 were registered on an average in each Lok Sabha
constituency.

In six states — Rajasthan (25 seats), Chhattisgarh (11),
Madhya Pradesh (29), West Bengal (42), Uttar Pradesh (80) and Assam (14) —
which account for 201 Lok Sabha constituencies, the number of voters between 18
and 19 years of age per constituency is higher than the national average.

Around 81.5 crore people are eligible to vote in the 2014
elections, up from the 71.7 crore voters registered in the 2009 Lok Sabha
polls, a jump of about 13.6 per cent. In overall number terms, around 2.32
crore voters this time will be between 18 and 19, accounting for 24 per cent of
the increase. Those between the ages of 18 and 23 are estimated
to be 4.87 crore.